7 yr old girl performs kalaripayattu as offering to Ayyappa

Sabarimala: A seven-year-old devotee of Lord Ayyappa performed `Kalaripayattu`, Kerala`s traditional martial art form, as an offering to the deity.

The over one hour performance at the Sastha Auditorium recently, literally left the audience spellbound.

The third standard student, Amritha, demonstrated the lessons of Kalaripayattu she had learned from her father Vinod Kumar.

The young girl has been learning the martial art for the past one and a half years with punctual discipline, waking up everyday at 5am and practising the art for one and half hours. Her father, a Kalari master in the VKM Kalari, is her mentor, a press release from Travancore Devaswom Board, which manages the temple, said.

She said she was very happy to have performed the art in public for the first time and that too in front of Lord Ayyappa. She wants to become a known Karipayattu exponent along with excelling in her studies.

Another Ayyappa devotee is providing drinking water to thirsty devotees, setting an example at Sabarimala.

The devotee, Damodar Reddy, feels there is nothing like providing drinking water to thirsty devotees who climb the hilly shrine to offer worship. Around 6000 devotees are served drinking water each day by Reddy.

A drinking water treatment plant has been constructed adjacent to the `Nadapanthal` by him. The board is also helping him in the initiative.

The drinking water collected from the water resources in the deep forest is brought here and through purification process using modern UV methods, water is provided to the pilgrims. Reddy has been providing this service since the past four pilgrimage seasons here.